12. Food additives
- Definition: Substances added to food to preserve flavour or enhance its taste, appearance or other qualities
- Examples:
- Preserving foods with vinegar or salting
- Sweetening foods
- Adding taste enhancers like monosodium glutamate (MSG) – enhances umami taste
- Adding antioxidants to prevent oxidation of the food
- Adding nitrites to preserve the food longer
- Adding sulphur dioxide to wine to preserve it
- All food additives in Europe have a unique “E number”
- E100 – E199 – food colours
- E200 – E299 – preservatives
- E250 – sodium nitrite
- E300 – E399 – antioxidants, acidity regulators
- E400 – E499 – Thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers
- E500 – E599 – Acidity regulators, anti-caking agents
- E600 – E699 – flavour enhancers
- E700 – E799 – antibiotics
- E900 – E999 – Glazing agents, gases, sweeteners
- E1000 – E1599 – additional additives
- Approval of new food additives in the EU
- Takes 10+ years in total
- At least 5 years of safety testing
- Potential negative health effects
- Nitrites
- They are used to preserve cured meat
- They can react with amines in food in the acidic environment of the stomach to form nitrosamine, a known carcinogenic compound
- Some people have allergies to certain food additives
- Chinese restaurant syndrome – “allergy” to MSG (not a true allergy, likely nocebo effect)
- Nitrites